Parents take cycle row children to school

Well-supported: Gillian and Oliver Schonrock are thankful for the backing they have received

Two children at the centre of a safety dispute over cycling to school returned to the classroom on their bikes today, accompanied by their parents.

Oliver and Gillian Schonrock, speaking as they rode with their eight-year-old daughter and five-year-old son to school in Dulwich, said they were grateful for "amazing support" shown since they revealed their children were allowed to cross busy roads alone.

A row broke out after they described how the headmaster of the £12,000-a year Alleyn's junior school in Dulwich warned them about safety.

Senior politicians came out to support the family, with Boris Johnson criticising "barmy" health and safety rules and the Prime Minister saying his sympathies lay with the family.

Today Mr Schonrock, managing director of an e commerce company, told the Standard: "We would like to thank everybody who has publicly and privately expressed support for us. Not just public figures like Boris Johnson and the Prime Minister but everyone who has spoken to us privately as well.

"Obviously we have divided opinion which we very much expected.

"We are very confident that the decision we are making is appropriate for our children but we are in no way suggesting it is appropriate for all children. People need to evaluate their own risks."

Their children spent yesterday playing in their garden after they were kept out of school by their parents because of the furore. But today they were accompanied on their bicycles for the one-mile journey to school after Mr and Mrs Schonrock called headmaster Mark O'Donnell to tell him the children would return today.

It had been thought the school had threatened to report the parents to social services if they did not accompany their children. But Mr O'Donnell vehemently denied that and said the parents' decision to accompany their children was made by them alone.

He said: "The school did not report or threaten to report the family to social services. We have sought to work with the parents to agree a safe travel plan and our issue is not the fact that they were riding unaccompanied but unaccompanied considering their ages. The school is bound by a safeguarding duty to raise a concern with parents. Legal advice confirms we would be failing in our safeguarding duty if we did not raise a concern which we have done."

Guidelines from Southwark council indicate that the appropriate age for children crossing roads unaccompanied is nine. Bikeability, the Government-approved cycle training organisation, says children should not ride unaccompanied under 11 years of age.

The Prime Minister's spokesman said Mr Cameron believed in "the need for parents to take responsibility". He said: "He thinks that people should be taking decisions for themselves and taking control of their lives."